Fashion Seminar- Reading Response: The Dressed Body

 

The Dressed Body

The  clothes  we  wear  are  in  a  very  close  contact  with  out  boy  it  in  a  way  forms  a  part  of  our  body  and  hence  our  behaviour.

As  we  wear  different  kinds  of  clothing  it  helps  us  to  discover  something  new  about  our  body  for example, when  I  wear  an  off  shoulder  t-shirt  that  makes  me  notice  my  collar  bone  and  the sharpness  of  my  shoulders.

“Dress,  then,  forms  part  of  our  epidermis-  it  lies  on  the  boundary  between  self  and  other” (1) because  our  attitude  changes  with  the  kind  of  clothes  we  wear. With  every  different  dress  we  wear, we  are  a  different  person  with  a  different  attitude.

The  intimate  interaction  of  a  dress  with  our  body  isn’t  enough  as we  are expected to wear a dress to impress so it is very important to keep the social factors in mind while dressing up. Our individualism and our body do not only belong to us in the face of the society. ”It is the vehicle of identity but this identity has to be managed in terms of the definitions of the social situation which impose particular ways of being on the body.”(2)

An  individual  who  wishes  to  be  different  with  his/her  style  will  not  be  readily  accepted  in  the society  so  therefore he/she becomes a victim of the societal norms and expectations.

Dresses have instilled the feeling of self confidence among women   because of the rigid structure and form of for example, a pant-suit. A part of the gender discrimination is due to the difference in the clothing style of men and women. Different classes of the society are expected to wear clothes which suits or suggests their social strata. The  relationship  that  we  have  with  the  kind  of  fabric  we  wear  is  influenced  both historically and culturally. The essence of   the fabric worn in the modern world is different from that worn in the earlier era.

We often forget about the fact that no one but ourselves has control over our body therefore the spaces around us that supposedly control our body and behaviour  can  be  altered  according  to  our  choices  and  needs.

(1)Joanne Entwistle, “The Dressed Body” in Real Bodies : A Sociological Introduction, ed. Mary Evans and Ellie Lee.(Palgrave, 2002), 133.

(2)Joanne Entwistle, “The Dressed Body” in Real Bodies : A Sociological Introduction, ed. Mary Evans and Ellie Lee.(Palgrave, 2002), 139.

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